"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Anticipating the tour, the local authorities had that downhill road redone just a few days before the stage. If you look at the photo's of the crashed riders you'll noticed there are no roadmarkings painted yet and the surface is as pristine as tarmac comes. And with pristine I mean extremely slippery when rained upon.

Todays stage takes them over the cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix. That's a pretty harsh environment to recuperate in if you got seriously hurt yesterday. It will be interesting to see if people like Gesink and Farrar can survive this one.

Anticipating the tour, the local authorities had that downhill road redone just a few days before the stage. If you look at the photo's of the crashed riders you'll noticed there are no roadmarkings painted yet and the surface is as pristine as tarmac comes. And with pristine I mean extremely slippery when rained upon.

Turns out the main problem was a motorbike crashed there and spilled oil over the road, then the cyclists came through and hit the oil.

If you didn't see it it would be worth picking up the end of Versus (if you're in the states). Scheck took everything Contador could throw at him. It was really great to see them going at it and possibly let Menchov back into the hunt for real.

Contador apologized to his rival after sprinting ahead when Schleck dropped his chain during an attack on the stage's final climb. The Spaniard ignored the Tour's sporting traditions by refusing to wait and was booed by the crowd.

After gaining 39 seconds Contador issued an apology on Youtube, while Schleck vowed to take his revenge.

There is nothing wrong with displaying some sportsmanship and there is nothing wrong with using a good opportunity to gain some time one a rival either.

Had he not used the opportunity to attack and then proceeded to lose the Tour with a few seconds, they'd call him a fool for not attacking.Had he kept his pace and allowed Schleck to rejoin him only to win the tour on the Tourmalet or the time trial it would have been remember as a great moment of sportsmanship in cycling. Much like when Jan Ullrich didn't take advantage when some idiot supporter made Lance Armstrong fall. Ullrich gained a lot of respect from cycling fans that day.